Alex Knapp writes about how E-Readers may save reading. Abel writes about how the iPad solved his eBook dilemma. On the first item, I have a post I’ve been needing to write for some time now.
Grist reports that eating healthy is hard but not impossible for low-income Americans. This is helpful in the sense that no, poor people aren’t fat because they cannot afford not to be. This is not helpful in the sense that I am a nutritional nihilist and I don’t think they are any more interested in eating healthy than I am. Then again, maybe if we just make the forks larger…
The self-examination that higher education would rather not conduct. For all of his faults (and they appear to be legion), Texas Governor Rick Perry has made some of this a priority. We’ll have to see how WGU-Texas goes.
I’m with ED Kain on this one: This is blackmail. Brilliant, legal blackmail. On the other hand, in concept, how different is it than “We will list your phone number unless you pay us not to”?
100 years ago, the Mona Lisa was stolen by a self-described Italian patriot.
Rock on America, you crazy kids, you.
I used to think it was odd that I had only worked for small-ish businesses. It turns out to be not unusual at all. They provide 54% of total paid employees and are 64% of total US job creation. When we talk about “small businesses”, it’s really not the sort of hokum that we need propped up for nostalgia’s sake, as with family farms. This stuff matters.
Is the European model a failure?
Is divorce the natural order of things for men? It sort of makes sense until you consider one crucial fact. Anyone want to take a stab at it?
Does the shape and size of the pill matter?
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Regarding the food dilemma: again, I’ll point out my own experience in testing out various food markets.
In the supermarket in the dumpy area around SoTech, you’re lucky to find produce that one would deem edible (or perhaps, want to eat). Bananas, which the webpage you link points out as “the cheapest source of potassium”, generally are brown and inedible-looking when they are being stocked at all. If I had that as my main source of groceries, I’d do better getting my potassium from gatorade.
On the topic of whether divorce is the natural order of things for men, I believe that the overwhelming number of divorce suits (between 2/3 and 3/4) are filed by the wife, not the husband.
We’ll have to see how WGU-Texas goes.
What does this mean?
Unfortunately I don’t see higher education changing anytime soon. It is one of those industries that gets by on reputation, not results.
Yes, I concede that the HYPS graduate is bright and hard-working. I would say that most people are conflating cause and effect. He was smart and hard-working before he ever step foot on the HYPS campus. If I take someone who got 500s on the College Boards, they aren’t going to get much out of HYPS; however they might really jump up at a place like Northwest New Jersey State Teachers College…
Trumwill, thought you might think this is interesting.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/17/why-amazon-cant-make-a-kindle-in-the-usa/
Web, I don’t really doubt the difficulty of getting healthy food, but it appears not to be impossible. That’s not license to blame the poor for their predicament, of course. But I’ve lately been on the more forgiving end of obesity. Just because something is possible doesn’t mean that somebody that does it when it’s easy would or could actually do it when it’s hard.
Kevin, your stab hits the heart of the matter. There seems to be a stereotype that divorce is caused by men trading their wives in for a younger model. No doubt it happens, but it appears to not be the norm.
Mike,
I added a link for WGU Texas. I meant to put it in the post, but overlooked it. One of the main problems with cheap-delivery education is that it tends to be run by for-profits that can just rake it in. A more civic-minded, non-profit institute like WGU holds a lot of promise in driving the prices down for the lower end of the education.
These types of schools will never replace Harvard, or even the University of Florida. But they could pose a threat to the likes of Pensacola State College, Southeastern Louisiana University, and the like.
Rob! It’s good to hear from you again! I saw that story, but haven’t read it yet. I’ll be sure to do so.
Thanks for the link.
I hope that Perry’s proposal succeeds.
Anything to break the cartel. Furthermore, since it is a non-profit, it has a better reputation already the UPhoenix.
Will,
A lot of the things that one “could do” to fight obesity are a lot easier for the non-poor.
For a secondary example: public parks may be “available” in pseudo-war-zone areas like the one near SoTech, for instance, but the poor who live there are understandably scared of going to their “public parks” even to get exercise by walking. And fitness centers (bally’s, 24hr, even YMCA) tend not to locate in those neighborhoods either.
When your neighborhood is high-crime and dilapidated, your transportation options are limited, and the food options within walking distance or reasonable distance of your public transportation options tend to be low quality, it’s a list of factors that builds up quickly. Not “impossible”, but I find it harder to blame many of the people for making what is a very commonsense risk/benefit calculation on some of their “healthy options” as defined by some of the studies.
A lot of the things that one “could do” to fight obesity are a lot easier for the non-poor.
On that, we agree. Except for comparatively few cases, though, I just don’t see it making all that much difference. It’s not a reason not to do it (some, like crime prevention, we’d like to do for other reasons), but I think I have just as much problem with the notion “they could lose weight if we just made it easier for them” as I do with the “they could lose weight if they only wanted to.” I think we’re dealing with a stew of issues, a lot of it coming down to something that we really can’t change (immediate access to tasty, inexpensive, and unhealthy food, and lifestyles that do not require exercise).
Yeah, I’ve been OOC for a while. My hip’s hurt for years, and I couldn’t stand it. I had to get out of school with a lower, and terminal, 🙁 degree than I wanted so my insurance would go through till like last week. I moved home and got hip surgery, after jumping through a bunch of hoops. Acetabular microfracture, labral/bursal debridement, and illiopsoas release. It’s sucked, but I think I’m gonna end up in less pain eventually. But its not like I’ve been missing out on a roaring job market.